Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment
There are severe geographical disparities in pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) across Malawi, with most teachers concentrated near commercial centers and in rural schools with better amenities. Most of the variation in PTR is concentrated in small sub-dis...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/286131511361864175/Moving-teachers-to-Malawis-remote-communities-a-data-driven-approach-to-teacher-deployment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28914 |
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okr-10986-289142021-06-08T14:42:47Z Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment Asim, Salman Chimombo, Joseph Chugunov, Dmitry Gera, Ravinder RURAL SCHOOLS REMOTE COMMUNITIES TEACHER DEPLOYMENT POLITICAL ECONOMY PUPIL-TEACHER RATIOS EDUCATION MANAGEMENT There are severe geographical disparities in pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) across Malawi, with most teachers concentrated near commercial centers and in rural schools with better amenities. Most of the variation in PTR is concentrated in small sub-district areas, suggesting a central role for micro-geographic factors in teacher distribution. Employing administrative data from several government sources, regression analysis reveals that school-level factors identified by teachers as desirable are closely associated with PTR, including access to roads, electricity, and water, and distance to the nearest trading center, suggesting a central role for teachers' interests in PTR variation. Political economy network mapping reveals that teachers leverage informal networks and political patronage to resist placement in remote schools, while administrative officials are unable to stand up to these formal and informal pressures, in part because of a lack of reliable databases and objective criteria for the allocation of teachers. This study curates a systematic database of the physical placement of all teachers in Malawi and links it with data on school facilities and geo-spatial coordinates of commercial centers. The study develops a consistent and objective measure of school remoteness, which can be applied to develop policies to create rules for equitable deployments and targeting of incentives. Growing awareness of disparities in PTRs among district education officials is already showing promising improvements in targeting of new teachers. Simulation results of planned policy applications show significant potential impacts of fiscally-neutral approaches to targeted deployments of new cohorts, as well as retention of teachers through data-calibrated incentives. 2017-11-30T22:31:37Z 2017-11-30T22:31:37Z 2017-11 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/286131511361864175/Moving-teachers-to-Malawis-remote-communities-a-data-driven-approach-to-teacher-deployment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28914 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8253 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Africa Malawi |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
RURAL SCHOOLS REMOTE COMMUNITIES TEACHER DEPLOYMENT POLITICAL ECONOMY PUPIL-TEACHER RATIOS EDUCATION MANAGEMENT |
| spellingShingle |
RURAL SCHOOLS REMOTE COMMUNITIES TEACHER DEPLOYMENT POLITICAL ECONOMY PUPIL-TEACHER RATIOS EDUCATION MANAGEMENT Asim, Salman Chimombo, Joseph Chugunov, Dmitry Gera, Ravinder Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Malawi |
| relation |
Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8253 |
| description |
There are severe geographical
disparities in pupil-teacher ratios (PTR) across Malawi,
with most teachers concentrated near commercial centers and
in rural schools with better amenities. Most of the
variation in PTR is concentrated in small sub-district
areas, suggesting a central role for micro-geographic
factors in teacher distribution. Employing administrative
data from several government sources, regression analysis
reveals that school-level factors identified by teachers as
desirable are closely associated with PTR, including access
to roads, electricity, and water, and distance to the
nearest trading center, suggesting a central role for
teachers' interests in PTR variation. Political economy
network mapping reveals that teachers leverage informal
networks and political patronage to resist placement in
remote schools, while administrative officials are unable to
stand up to these formal and informal pressures, in part
because of a lack of reliable databases and objective
criteria for the allocation of teachers. This study curates
a systematic database of the physical placement of all
teachers in Malawi and links it with data on school
facilities and geo-spatial coordinates of commercial
centers. The study develops a consistent and objective
measure of school remoteness, which can be applied to
develop policies to create rules for equitable deployments
and targeting of incentives. Growing awareness of
disparities in PTRs among district education officials is
already showing promising improvements in targeting of new
teachers. Simulation results of planned policy applications
show significant potential impacts of fiscally-neutral
approaches to targeted deployments of new cohorts, as well
as retention of teachers through data-calibrated incentives. |
| format |
Working Paper |
| author |
Asim, Salman Chimombo, Joseph Chugunov, Dmitry Gera, Ravinder |
| author_facet |
Asim, Salman Chimombo, Joseph Chugunov, Dmitry Gera, Ravinder |
| author_sort |
Asim, Salman |
| title |
Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment |
| title_short |
Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment |
| title_full |
Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment |
| title_fullStr |
Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Moving Teachers to Malawi's Remote Communities : A Data-Driven Approach to Teacher Deployment |
| title_sort |
moving teachers to malawi's remote communities : a data-driven approach to teacher deployment |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/286131511361864175/Moving-teachers-to-Malawis-remote-communities-a-data-driven-approach-to-teacher-deployment http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28914 |
| _version_ |
1764468017850220544 |